100
by SkullThread
Summary: He was bulletproof. Literally. The deadly flying slugs couldn't hurt him. But what did sting was the gray eyed blonde shooting gunshot after gunshot at him.
1. Bulletproof

He was bulletproof. Literally. The deadly flying slugs couldn't hurt him.

How did he get here in the first place? He did something to someone or someone did something to him. All he was sure about was the blonde in front of him shooting gunshot after gunshot at him, screaming at the top of her lungs in rage. He couldn't hear her. Nor was he really wanting to, but having someone you love who's yelling at you in rage but getting drown out by the sound the bullets that they're shooting at you, probably doesn't sound like good communication in a relationship.

Perhaps not listening was what got Percy here. That may have been it, but he also supposed that it could have been something else that happened. In fact in may have been a large sum of things that happened that got him here. Or a large sum of things that hadn't happened, now that he thought about it.

This situation was a mess.

Percy held his hand up at arm's length in front of his face, where the majority of the bullets were aimed at. They slid through or bounced off or missed the skin, somehow they didn't really hit. He waited. She would run out of bullets sooner or later. Hopefully later. That way she would be tired and most of the anger would hopefully have drained.

He looked at the dry ground at his feet. It was cracked and dusted; glowing orange in the desert's lowering sun. Miles away in the distance stood mountains. In the other direction, behind him, was civilization somewhere. They had driven for hours this way, only to end up deeper into the middle of nowhere than Percy ever thought possible.

He stood there and didn't move. Quietly waiting.

Then, the bullets stopped. And he looked.

Annabeth stood a little ways away. Her blonde hair pulled back, but stray pieces hung around her face. The clothes she wore were tied in places like her waist or around her knees, to prevent their bagginess from getting in the way of moving; they were ripped and frayed, showing bits of skin and dried scabs. She was panting, red in the face, and carried a split lip.

Percy himself didn't look very inviting either. His clothes fit, but they were just held together by threads. The bullets had done their job on the fabric of his shirt and jeans. His hair was matted with grime, and he sported his share of injuries.

It was Annabeth's eyes that he looked at. Something he normally wouldn't do. They blazed with a terrifying amount of fury. But Percy's anger just about matched hers.

She was the one who moved first. She chucked the gun at his face with alarming force. It hit the mark, and he flinched on impact. It fell harmlessly to the ground, the empty chamber echoing into the dead silence between.

Annabeth ran at him. She sent a punch to his stomach, but he caught the fist. He spun her so that it was behind her back.

"Annabeth," he growled, "Stop fighting me."

The answer didn't come in words, but with a blind elbow from her other arm which struck him in the side of the ribs. He stumbled but refused to let go of her.

"Where is she?" Annabeth grunted, before twisting painfully out of his grasp and pulling her dagger out from behind her. She swiped him of his feet but he catch himself, so she jumped down on his chest knee first.

He groaned under her weight and stared at the dagger positioned above his chest. "Can't," he gasped.

"This?" She shook the dagger, "No. But it will hurt. Where is she?"

Percy looked up at her gray eyes, feeling his anger seeping into the dirt. Gods, he had missed her. But this wasn't the way he wanted to be welcomed home, chasing her from one state to the next. Months on end he didn't sleep unless he accidentally dozed off while driving; months on end of running after her fleeting form through food markets, busy streets, hotel rooms, fast food joints; months on end of jumping city to city following her, trying to get her to even face him.

Finally he had her looking at him, and this was the setting. Annabeth sitting on him with a dagger over his heart, after chasing her on foot when his car ran out of fuel, then continuing to chase her on foot when her car ran out of fuel, and even sticking around when she started shooting at him.

_Gods._

She bashed him on the head with the butt of the dagger. "Tell me."

She was so beautiful. The worst had happened. The worst was happening, but he kept on thinking that.

Percy reached up and touched her face. That was better.

"Don't touch me," she snapped, without trying to shake his hand off, "You're not answering my question."

"What are you asking?" Percy asked quietly, as if they were back in the library talking in calm tones.

Something flashed in her eyes. His hand was off her face in a matter of milliseconds. His arm stretched away from his body, his wrist under her foot.

"That was fast," he marveled.

"Where's Kody?" she growled, leaning close over him, applying more pressure to his chest.

He narrowed his eyes in confusion. He said, "I don't know a Kody."

She punched him without warning. Then punched him again. She pulled his face back so that they were eye to eye and only an inch away. He felt her short, heavy breathing on his face. "You know who she is. You're the one who took her! You probably fed her innocent little body to your fish!" She screamed, as her eyes filled with water, "My _daughter_, you imbecile! Where's my daughter?"

Percy's world froze. His heart and various other organs felt like they suddenly changed to helium. He was nothing for a moment, just a shell. Daughter. Daughter. _Daughter._

"What?" he choked, his own eyes filling with stinging tears of their own.

She looked at him. She gave him the look. The look she used since their first summer together. The Percy-what-the-hell-are-you-really-this-stupid? look. Then her features shifted. She stared down at him. Then she gave him the second look. The wow-Percy-you-really-are-this-stupid look.

For the third time her features changed. They mirrored Percy's very own feelings of shock, surprise, and complete horror.

"Shit." She said, before jumping off him.

Percy glanced at the sky. _Daughter._ Who was the father? He had been gone for so long, she must have….

"Percy," she called from his far right.

Slowly and with regret he rolled his head to the side and looked at her. She had her hands in her hair and was chewing on her lip. She was blurred from the tears spilling over his cheeks. He was too defeated to say anything. _A daughter?_

"You didn't take Kody?" she hastily asked.

He stared at Annabeth. His beautiful Annabeth wasn't his anymore. She got tired of waiting and started a family. A family he wasn't invited into. He would find her husband and kill him. No. No, he probably wouldn't.

_You should just leave, _he told himself. He didn't want to be here with her suddenly. He felt sick, tired, and more like a loser than ever before in his life. All this chasing, and he didn't know she had a daughter.

_Wait. That doesn't make sense._ The tiny gears in his mind moved a bit. _She had been running from him for months, where was her daughter? How come she was only bringing this up now if someone took her daughter months ago? Or did-_

"Daughter…?" he wheezed, "You have a daughter?"

He needed to get out of there. Gods, he was _so stupid._

"Percy, come on. We need to go save her, someone took her a few days ago…" she held her hand out for him, "Come on. We need go fast."

He ignored her hand. "You go."

"What?"

Yeah, this was better than him leaving in a rush. "You go," he grumbled, glaring at her, "Leave me here."

She gave him a look.

"No, really." Percy said, "Leave me here to die. Then the seagulls will come and eat my dead corpse-"

"When did you become a drama queen?" Annabeth said.

"King."

She sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "Seagulls aren't even native to Texas, stupid Seaweed Brain."

"What are you, like made of brain tissue?"

She smiled. His heart jumped. He hadn't seen that smile in years. But then it was gone and the worried look returned. Annabeth kneeled down next to his head, placing a hand on his brow.

"Percy," she started with a steady voice. She looked into his eyes, and he smiled. He could smell her. She smelled like wisdom, he had told her once. But now she smelled like a wet dog, not that he was complaining. She hadn't been this close to him voluntarily in ages, and he was soaking up every minute of it.

"Percy," she repeated, "I need you to help me find Kody, someone took her a few days ago. I thought it was you, but I guess you weren't aware of her existence."

_Kody._ He hated that child. The offspring of his fiancé and some other man. He wasn't going to help her look for the devil child that was now starting to form in his mind. She probably had fangs. Yeah. And brown hair. He hated brown hair.

"No." He stated.

Annabeth scrunched her face together, making Percy think for a horrified second that she would cry. Then in the smallest of voices-really, really small- she said, "Kody is your daughter, Percy."


	2. Library

**7 years ago**

Annabeth placed the stack of thick books in the middle of the library's table with a lasting thud that ringed around the shelves of books. She pulled out a chair and sat beside her fiancé, and just across from Grover. She took in the height of the stack, before sighing then taking the first of the top entitled _The History of_ _Architecture in Korea._

Percy mindlessly spun a coin on the table, caught it between his thumbs and aimed it to fly over Grover's head. He tilted his hands and flung the coin through the air. It hit Grover's left horn through the hat he wore, and fell to the ground.

Grover looked up from his book, he said, "What?"

"Nothing, Grover. Keep studying," Annabeth answered for Percy, "Percy's just being Percy."

"Finally." Grover said, slamming his book closed, "I was getting bored. Table football, Percy?"

Percy smiled, "Sure."

Grover bent and scooped up the coin. He repeated the process of lining up and sending the coin flying through the air, now aimed for Percy's finger posts, when Annabeth snatched it in mid-flight.

"Grover! Study!" she said, and shot a scowl in Percy's direction, "You too. Go get books and study." She returned to her book. It was fascinating how Asian culture reflected itself around different countries, but still maintained a core for the different places that signified its roots. She was particularly fond of-

_DUNK!_

Percy laughed loudly as Annabeth raised her hand to touch the spot where the coin had hit her temple. She shut the book in her hands, and placed it back on the pile. The stack lifted from the surface of the table and her chair pushed out. Annabeth carried the books to the table a few away, and sat back down to regain her concentration.

She was particularly fond of the Joseon Dynasty, the way the architects used mood and spiritual elements-

"I'm sorry," Percy said, as he pulled the chair to her left out and took a seat, "But it wasn't me it was Grover."

"Hey," Grover whined, as he took a new seat across from Annabeth, glancing at her around the books, "It was an accident."

"Just-" Annabeth sighed loudly, "Look, I'm trying to study. So please, be quiet."

Grover nodded. He went back to his book and Percy stood to finally select a book of the shelves. It was silent for a long time, save the murmuring of their fellow occupants of the library and the librarian's cart squeaking as it turned corners. This was possibly Annabeth's favourite place to spend her Saturday afternoon. The library was quiet; it was cut off from the world. It had its own type of gravity holding everything in place, keeping space filled heavy with knowledge, grounding her. It helped her focus knowing that the reason the library existed was for afternoons such as these.

The three of them were rapidly approaching exams to end the start of their first year at university, and Annabeth was trying desperately to ensure that it wasn't their last. Or more specifically Grover's and Percy's last. Or even more specifically Percy's.

In the beginning Percy was really excited to attend university, excited that he had gotten accepted into the Marine Biology Life course. But as time wore on he lost interest completely. He seemed to forget about classes, and went off on his own doing gods know what. She had to go looking for him on numerous occasions, only to find him standing alone in an alley staring off into space, or walking down streets she was unfamiliar with.

Each time she would try to coax out of him what he was doing, what was going on, but he was always just as confused as she. Not knowing what had happened, and only remembering bits and pieces of things. Like how he had seen someone resembling Luke and then… then Annabeth slapping him back into conscienceless. Sometimes he remembered smells of café's he passed while walking… somewhere. Sometimes he remembered shouts and screams coming from… somebody.

Secretly Annabeth was talking to doctors, and whenever he could spare her a minute Apollo himself. She asked him if there were any other cases he could recall, but he was useless besides from sympathy that and horrible haikus.

Annabeth acted completely fine around Percy, showing no worries, but it was eating her away not knowing what was going on in his head.

For now though, she focused on keeping him in class and managing to keep him on the grid for now. That was the reason she brought him to the library with her today. It killed two birds with one stone, she made sure he was studying and keeping him in her line of vision at all times.

She straightened in her chair. How long had he been gone getting books? She stood, sweeping the area for her fiancé.

"What's wrong?" Grover asked in a ready voice.

"Where is he?" she muttered, craning her neck in all directions.

Grover stood then too, also looking for him. It had been hard on him also, the changes in Percy over the last months, it was stressing him out, it rubbed his fur in odd directions. He had helped Annabeth search for him many times. But he remained cool, which Annabeth was thankful for. Grover acted as an anchor for her when Percy couldn't.

Paul and Sally were affected by the events also. They constantly looked for ways to drop in on the two, just to check on Percy and ask Annabeth if things were improving.

The good news was: things were. There hadn't been any Percy-emergency-search-party calls in the last month. He was his usual self. Charming, stupid, and brave Percy was back at Annabeth's side again, instead of wandering the streets aimlessly.

But one month wasn't enough time for them to change the instincts they had gathered over almost a year.

"Go that way," she instructed, "I'll look back there."

They parted, and within a minute she found him. False alarm. He stood squinting at the spines of the books on the shelf in front of him. She watched as he leaned in close to them before pulling one off the shelf and turning in her direction to exit the row. He smiled at her and extended his arm for her. She merely rolled her eyes and left, listening to his laughter follow her back to their table.

After they regrouped the trio began again with their studying. After an hour of them breathing in the dust of the books, cramming words into their brains, and Annabeth watching Percy out her peripheral vision, Grover declared that he was done for the day. They followed his lead, pushing the books to the side.

Grover sighed dramatically and looked at the ceiling. He waited for them to ask what made him sigh so unrealistically. Annabeth and Percy waited a good while in silence, just looking at him, smiles on their faces. Percy cracked after four minutes, sighing back to Grover and saying, "What's wrong?"

Grover looked at them intensely. The look was part anger and frustration. He ran a hand over his face roughly. Again he sighed.

"Juniper and I are having twins."

Nobody moved. For a long, long time nobody moved. Or talked. Nobody talked or moved for a long, long time. The air around the table grew thick much too fast, and everything surrounding them became instantly sharper. Annabeth could hear the people at the next table over whispering about a book. She could she someone reaching for a book through on the other side of the shelf behind Grover. The smell of books seemed stronger, and she could faintly smell aftershave from the two men at the table with her.

"Wait," Percy said, before his voice dropped to a whisper, "How is that gonna look? The baby I mean-" Annabeth kicked him under the table.

"Grover that's incredible!" she exclaimed, "When did you find out?"

"Congratulations, G-man," Percy enthused, having recovered from the kick but still rubbing the spot attentively.

Grover suddenly got flustered. He twisted his hands; he opened and closed his mouth until his face turned red. He said, "We weren't sure for a while, so we decided to ask Chiron. He did an ultra sound and, well… well… it was a crazy afternoon… we're having twins." He scratched his head and glanced nervously between Percy and Annabeth, "We think they're girls…?"

"That is the coolest thing, Grover. I'm so happy for you," Percy said, smiling widely and running his hands through his hair in disbelief.

It went on for awhile, them saying how excited they were, and asking a few questions about the sex of the babies-unknown. Or about when will they arrive-December/January. Which worries Grover to no end.

"There's no nature in the winter! It's bad luck!" Grover cried. After the librarian shushed him the three sat back in a pleasant silence for a while.

"So," Grover sighed, "Are you two planning on kids?"

The silence that followed was not pleasant. It was awkward and terrifying for both parties in question. For once Annabeth's mind didn't react to a question immediately looking for answers, but froze and tried to forget the question was asked. She looked at Percy slightly. He was looking back. She snapped her head in the opposite direction.

"Wow." Grover marveled, "Was that like dropping a bomb or what? You don't need to answer that if you don't want to."

"Good," Percy croaked.

Annabeth's head spun back to him.

"No!" he said loudly, raising his hands, "No-that's-I just-"

"How about this?" Grover said, laughing, "Do you have anything against having kids? Like, any major reason you don't want them?"

Annabeth continued to stare at Percy with stone cold eyes. She muttered, "Not really, but that isn't an answer to the main question."

Percy stared back at her. "Not really," he echoed, but it didn't exactly sound like an answer as more of him thinking over _her_ answer and repeating it for good measure to ensure that he actually heard the words.

Grover gazed at them. "Okay. If, hypothetically, you decided to have kids, when would that be? A year? Five years? Ten? Twenty?"

"I'm not having kids in _twenty_ years," she said.

Grover scrunched up his face in confusion. "What?"

"Within twenty years, Grover. That's what she means," Percy said. He narrowed his eyes at her trying to calculate something.

"Well," Grover said. What he said after that was lost on Annabeth. She couldn't bring herself to move away from Percy's eyes. They stared intently at her, switching from one of her gray eyes to the next. It was as though she had flicked something in his head, because she rarely saw Percy this focused on determining what she was thinking.

But she wasn't thinking much at the moment, so that might be why he didn't break the gaze for such a long while. Then his cell phone rang.

He picked it up on the fourth ring, finally moving his eyes from hers to the tiny screen on the device. He excused himself to answer the call. When he was out of sight Grover said, "That was intense. You two staring at each other _usually_ means I end up leaving the room-" Annabeth kicked him under the table.

He groaned but kept talking, "But seriously, that was something else. Gosh-"

Annabeth let out a long breath. "Grover, stop talking please."

They waited, and waited, but the phone call must have been greatly important for Percy, because he never came back.


	3. Friends

The pounding on the door was not what woke Nico from sleep. What woke him from his slumber was the screaming baby next door that refused to rest. The pounding on the door came a half hour later.

He glanced at the clock and sighed in annoyance. He considered not answering; it would be much easier that way. He would avoid whoever it was, and hopefully aggravate them, just as they were to him. It is _night time_, not knock on Nico's front door time. Why everyone knocked on his door late at night was beyond him.

Just last week Travis Stoll had barged in yelled about his ex girlfriend and his brother then fell in a heap on the floor of Nico's kitchen and started to snore. Another time Connor had stormed in, but unlike his brother didn't yell just took up a spot on the couch. Nico didn't even think he was drunk.

It seemed that his apartment was a refuge for those wandering the night and too lazy to call a taxi.

The pounding continued as Nico yawned. He opened the fridge. What to eat? There wasn't much. A few eggs, milk, carrots, and some Pepsi. He chose Pepsi and turned to walk back to his mattress on the floor of his room, when the person on the other side of the door cried out in a last attempt to be let in.

"Nico, please open the door," Percy's voice called, "Please, it's important!"

Nico spun on his heel. He marched over to the door, threw it open, and took in Percy's appearance. He was soaked in sweat and seemed to have shed a few tears in the last little while. "Percy?" Nico said, baffled by his friend, "What are you doing here?"

"Can I come in?" Percy asked, with a desperate look.

"Yeah." Nico shut the door behind Percy and drank a bit from the Pepsi can while he accessed the man. Why would he be here? He shared apartment with his long-time girlfriend, and she never kicked him out. Much. But even then he would stay in the hall and bother her until she told him how to open the new locks.

Nico watched Percy pace around the kitchen, then stop to run his hands across his face. And then take up the pacing again. Percy froze. He looked at the cabinets lining the kitchen, looked at Nico, looked back at the cabinets.

"Do you have any food?" he asked in a low voice.

"Why are you here?" Nico asked to avoid the question, while setting his Pepsi down.

Percy didn't reply at first; just keep a dull look on his face as his eyes fluttered around the room as if the walls might crumble at any second. He fidgeted with the edge of the kitchen countertop, snapping his fingers at the smooth surface. It was the only sound in the room, until he whispered something under his breath.

"What?" Nico asked.

Percy groaned loudly. He said, "25 degrees, 47 minutes north, 80 degrees, 13 minutes west."

Again Nico said, "What?"

Percy looked hard at Nico. "I have to go," he said, but the words didn't sound like his own. It sounded as if Percy was merely reciting them, trying to believe them.

"Go where?" Nico demanded, suspicion lacing every syllable.

Percy's eyes narrowed in confusion, he whispered, "18 degrees, 13 minutes north, 66 degrees, 2 minutes west."

Nico stared through the darkness of the kitchen at him, "What-? Are those, like… coordinates or something?"

Percy's eyes darted around the walls wildly. Were they going to fall in because he was there? Nico thought. Was there a monster-

"Why are they changing?" Percy snapped to his left, as if there was a person standing beside him and they had the answers.

Oh. Percy must have been lost again.

Nico scratched his head. He was uncomfortable in the presents of the mentally unstable. Unstable and death were closely related things and so were Nico and death. The unstable rubbed off on him a little when he was with them. It made him feel sick.

"Come on, I'll call Annabeth," Nico muttered.

"NO!" Percy screamed, before his eyes glassed over and he said, "32 degrees, 18 minutes north, 64 degrees, 47 minutes west."

Nico shook his head, "Percy you need to go home, and you gotta tell Annabeth about what you're talking about, she'll-"

"No," he hissed, anger and frustration on his face, "You cannot tell her at _all. _Okay?"

"Sure," Nico said to humor him.

Percy paced around the apartment for an hour, and then passed out on the couch. Nico made sure everything in the house was in order, the sharp objects were hidden, and afterward went to bed. He didn't want to see Percy on the same couch and that Travis had… well done stuff on in his drunk state, but what was he supposed to do with the crazy person? Invite him to sleep in his bed while _he _slept on the couch? No. That wouldn't happen.

At some point in the night Nico thought he heard more frantic pacing, but other than that and the minimal cries of the child next door, it was silent.

In the morning Nico rolled onto the floor beside his bed, still warped in blankets. It was his technique for waking up in the morning. Quickly go from comfortable and warm to hard and cold. Woke him right up. But that morning he was so tired… why was he so tired…?

Percy.

Nico sighed, opening his eyes to cracks. He was gonna need to go check on him soon.

But he was tired…

Nico's eyes snapped open. There was noise from somewhere. It rang and rang in his ears.

The baby crying? Again…?

No. It was the phone placed between him and the wall.

Groggily he reached over and fumbled it to rest against his ear. It was too bright in the room for him to really do much more than that. He breathed onto the receiver to show he had picked up.

"Nico?" a familiar voice said from the line, "Where's Percy?"

Nico sat up. It was Annabeth. Nico scratched his neck, he growled, "What?"

"_Percy_. Nico, where is Percy?"

He stood and stretched, moaning when joints cracked. "He's here, don't worry," Nico said.

Annabeth fell quiet, contemplating. Nico let her do so in silence. He walked out to the kitchen and opened the door to the fridge. He closed it after he decided that he would eat out.

"Percy," he called, "Your fiancé is on the phone."

Annabeth said, "Why is he there?"

"I don't know," Nico snapped, whipping his eyes clear of sleep, "You kicked him out or something, right?"

"No."

Nico stopped. On the fridge in front of his face was a sticky note.

_I need to __leave. _

_I'm __not__ crazy._

_Do not tell Annabeth._

"Nico?" came Annabeth's voice from another world, "Tell Percy I need to talk to him."

He's gone, Nico thought. He pulled the note off the fridge. Leave. Leave. _Leave. __Leave._

"Shit."

Nico ran into the living room. The couch was empty. He ran to the bathroom. Empty. He did a full sweep of his apartment, the whole time Annabeth yelling over the phone for him to tell her what was happening. He went into every room at least three times before he hung up the phone and ran to the closet near the door.

The phone rang again as he hurriedly pulled his shoes on. For a moment he considered answering it.

Then Nico hesitantly flattened the paper in his hands.

_Do not tell Annabeth._

And with that he bolted out the door to search for his friend.


	4. Drive

**AN: Hello people. If you are just joining us, you may want to know the irrelevant information that this is my first AN of this story. I never really liked it when fanfic authors were too cool to write an AN. So after I realized I was being a hypocrite, I thought real long on it and decided to write one. An AN, that is.**

**Just want you to know that the reviews are really cool and I love it when I get them, so please take a second to write one if you can. As if you never heard that before.**

**Anyway, this chapter is shorter, but (in my mind) important. Enjoy.**

**Present day**

They decided to ditch the cars. Both were out of gas anyway, so what use would they be?

It was silent walking back to the small town they had departed from. By the time they got back it was well into the night.

The two searched for a while, looking carefully for a car out of the way enough that no one would miss it much. When they finally found one that suited the criteria, it was already unlocked.

Percy slid into the driver's seat before Annabeth could protest. She stood there staring at him until he asked, "What?"

"Do you know how to hotwire a car?" she asked, in a bored voice.

Without comment Percy stepped out of the car. He got in the passenger side while Annabeth frowned at her reflection in the mirror and fiddled with a piece of stray hair that looked to have been singed a bit on the end. She gave up after a minute when she caught Percy looking at her. She muttered quietly, "Do you have a knife, or something?"

Percy pulled Riptide out of his pocket and uncapped it. "Or something," he said, offering the handle to her.

"Never mind," she huffed, before reaching over his legs to the glove department. She let it fall open, and began rummaging through the contents.

Percy quickly put away the sword, feeling like an idiot. He uselessly stared at her as she found a plastic knife and fork. She went to work prying the panel under the dashboard up, catching it when it was a finger width out from its usual spot, and pulling with white fingers until it snapped off with a crack.

Percy let his eyes wander out the window. The town was really in the middle of nowhere. Texas was too big of a state to keep track of, what with all the repeating colours in every city. Dust brown, chalky gold, dull green, a bit of smoky red here and there. Percy suspected he was wrong though. He had only had time to keep his eyes on the back of Annabeth at all times while on his chase.

And now they were together. Finally. This is what he'd wanted the whole time. For years this is what he'd wanted.

But not like this. This wasn't the comfortable picture he had been hoping for when he returned. This was just awkward.

He didn't know what to do in this situation. He didn't even know what to title the situation, and he wasn't going to try.

A grumble sounded from the car before it hummed to life under them. The headlights illuminated the ground in front of them. Annabeth put the car in reverse and drove around to the front of the building, down the main road of the tiny town, then gunned it, jerking the car forward.

The headlights led the way as the car drove onward, swerving slightly when a large enough obstacle came into view.

"Where are we going?" Percy asked.

"New York," was her short answer.

They drove a long time. Percy wasn't sure how long, the digital clock on the dash wasn't blinking, it had read 7:45 since they started driving. Neither talked, no matter how badly Percy needed to ask about this Cody.

At one point Annabeth pulled the car over in a big city -the first one they had reached- for gas, and when she got back in Percy asked, as if there hadn't been any time in between questions, "Why New York?"

"Connor Stoll left the message on my phone that Cody had disappeared from camp," Annabeth said, as she pulled back into traffic. Percy saw her knuckles whiten on the steering wheel. "He didn't give details, and he isn't answering his phone. Therefore we need to talk to him face to face."

"Okay," Percy said, looking out the window. The car smelt really bad. The previous owner obviously smoked, and never bathed. He focused on that for a while; thought about how he could potentially fix it. It sort of helped clear his head. He yanked on the windows roller, but it was stuck tightly, so he quickly ran out of things to think about.

"Annabeth," he said.

He thought he saw her eyes flash at him for a split second, but he was probably wrong.

"I'm sorry," he said.

No answer was given.


End file.
